Badminton: China clean-sweeps all five titles

China made a clean sweep of all the five titles at the World Championships which concluded here on Sunday, a feat they had achieved in 1987 in Beijing.

Written by Press Trust of India

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Paris :

China made a clean sweep of all the five titles at the World Championships which concluded here on Sunday, a feat they had achieved in 1987 in Beijing.

It was a stunning performance by a team that had two of its best players Lin Dan in men's singles and Yihan Wang in women's singles lost at the quarter-final stage.

The men's doubles final was the last summit clash of the championships after the Chinese had won men's and women's singles as well as women's and mixed doubles titles.

And standing in the way of a Chinese clean sweep at the Pierre de Coubertin Stadium were top seeds Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong of Malaysia against Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng.

The world number one Malaysian pair did their best to try to stop a Chinese clean sweep but lost 21-18, 18-21, 14-21. Cai and Fu raced to an early lead of 8-6 but the Malaysians were undeterred and fought back to level at 9-9. At the break, Malaysia led 11-10, the first time they were in the lead in the first game.

The Malaysians then broke away to lead 16-12, but their opponents started attacking relentlessly and Koo made a costly miss when the score was 16-15 to allow the Chinese to draw level.

The two sides were tied at 18-18 before the Malaysians won the next three points to take the first game 21-18 in 18 minutes.

In the second game, both the teams were level at 5-5 but Cai and Fu broke away to lead 10-7. At the break the Chinese held a 11-10 advantage. The Chinese pair then raced to a 17-12 lead and went on to win the second game 21-18 to force the decider.

The third game was no different as Cai and Fu raced to a 7-2 lead and never looked back as they wrapped it up 21-14 and the match.